New Polls

Please look over to your right and participate in our Baby Boy polls. This is the same thing I did for Olivia. (And yes, we still haven't quite settled on a name for him yet! - we are working on it!)

1st Dance Class

Here are the VERY CUTE pictures and videos of Olivia from her first ballet/tap class. Here she is before we went inside in her cute little leotard:


Here is Ms. Heather helping get them ready for class:

The girls were so cute in the class. There is a one way window that we could watch them through so we wouldn't distract from the class. This is the first class with no parents, so all the girls were following directions on their own for the first time. They all did pretty good, but were all lost here and there - as expected with the first class. Olivia did really well and we loved watching her. Here are some videos and pictures (they did Tap the first half, then switched over to Ballet):

New House - Week 5

I think it is worth me going through our weekend activities to fully explain how "Restful" this weekend has been. It is labor day weekend and you all already know that I got in trouble at the doctor's office for having raised blood pressure . . . well, this weekend hasn't really helped much - but I am trying to take it easy today at least.

Friday night was pretty uneventful. Saturday morning, Grant let me sleep in a bit (doctor's orders, right??) and then we had to go to Olivia's first Dance Class (Ballet and Tap combo class). This is her first big girl class without parents! (I have the pics/videos from that in my next post). Anyway, we were running late for it (as usual) and I just threw my phone into my bag without looking at it. Her class was really cute (there is a one-way window that us parents were able to watch from). After her class, we grabbed an early lunch at chik-fil-a then were going to go head up to check on our new house.

Well, at lunch, I finally got around to looking at my phone. I had a missed call and email telling me that we were going to have a showing at our house TODAY from 11-noon. Well, it was already 11:30. Oops! Our house looked like a disaster. We hadn't had a showing in almost 4 weeks and got a bit complacent about keeping it clean (and we had been running late). Our grass was in desperate need of mowing, we had a pizza box on the counter, toys all over the family room, none of the beds were made and we had dirty clothes on the floor in our room. You know, what most people's houses look like when no one is around but them. GREAT! So, I called our realtor and explained to her that we did not get the message until just then and asked if she could please let the other realtor know how sorry we were for not cleaning up (how embarrassing!). Anyway, our realtor talked to theirs and told us that they figured we didn't get the message based on the state of our house, but they still really liked it and could tell how good of care we had taken of the house. We were on the top of these buyer's list at this point! WHAT?!?!?! Could this be the first time that murphy's law worked in our favor!?!?!

So, anyway, we went onto see the new house and the builder was there (so was his crew - putting up some of the siding). We were able to see some paint samples for the exterior siding and picked one out - I think it's called Dessert Resort Tan. Anyway, it looked pretty good, but we didn't get any pictures that day. Grant's parents were coming up the following day and we were going back - so we could just take pictures then.

So, Sunday, Grant's parents did come up. We went and got some lunch and checked out the house. Meanwhile, while we were at lunch, we got an email from our realtor.

Anyway, turns out that the people who came to look did like it a lot and put in an offer! Amazing! We gave them a counter offer and they seem to be ok with it, but need to check a couple things out with their bank on Tuesday! AND they are willing to let us rent the house back from them through the end of the year so we don't have to find temporary housing (with a new born) until our new house is ready at the end of the year. They apparently are moving in from out of town and the guy starts his job in January! Could this really all work out for us! That would be AWESOME! So everyone, please keep your fingers crossed for us!

During all of this, unfortunately, we got some sad news from my parents. My dad's very best friend, Mark Gordon, passed away that morning from pancreatic cancer after a tough almost 3 months since being diagnosed. Not good news at all, but he wasn't in good shape and we are glad that he didn't have to suffer very long. Please say a little prayer for his wife, Bev and their families.

On a more positive note, we did see the house and get lots of pictures. Here it is with siding (though it hasn't been painted yet, so don't think it will be yellow):

They still need to do the rock parts of the front.


Here's the family room:

The breakfast area of the kitchen:

Here's our master bathroom. They've got all the tubs in place!!

The foyer:

The back of the house:

This will be Olivia's room:

We also got quite a bit done to get ready for baby this weekend, but still have a couple more important things to get done (Car seats in the car and pack our hospital bag). But all in all, it has been a crazy and busy weekend! We are trying to get some rest today (especially me) and we are definitely excited about the potential sale of our house and the great progress of our new home! We will definitely keep you all in the loop on both - as well as, baby boy and my health status.

New House - Weeks 3-4

So when we went up to the house after week 2, they had just the foundation in. Then when we came back only 1 week later (Week 3) on August 20th, here's what we found! OMG - It actually looks like a house!




One of the rooms upstairs:

This will be our Kitchen area and it opens up to the family room (off to the right). Olivia is standing where our kitchen table area will be.

Here is Olivia showing off what will be HER room!

On August 28th, we went back to see what Week 4 had accomplished. Making amazing progress!!!

Garages:

Kitchen area:

Family Room area (you can just make out the outline of where our fireplace will be on the far wall in the center). The room behind that will be our master bedroom:

This is the front door area. We are standing in the dining room and the study is on the other side of the front door.

This is our master bathroom - looking at it from our bedroom:

The back of the house. You can see where our screened in porch will be:

That's it for this posting. I'll do another for this weekend when we checked it out again.

New House - Breaking Ground (Weeks 0-2)

So we have let you guys know that we are building a house up in Wake Forest and - they are really moving along on it! We have been out there every weekend to check in on it. Here are some pictures from the first couple of weeks:

This is before they broke ground - just a nice picture of out SOLD sign!!!! (July 31st)

They were intending to break ground on August 1st. We made our next trip out there on August 6th to see what progress they made during their first week. They dug out the layout and poured some concrete in to start the foundation:

Then we went back on August 14th to see how Week 2 went. Looks like they got the foundation in:

They were making pretty good progress these first couple weeks, but wait until you see what happened when we went back just one week later . . .

Belly Shots

Ok, so I know you guys are probably wondering how big my belly has been getting since it has been SO long since I have posted. Well, here is what you have missed:

31 Weeks

33 Weeks

Here are a couple videos of the little man kicking me quite a bit. This is from August 18th, when I was about 34 weeks along. Pay attention to the upper edge of my belly:

35 weeks

37 Weeks (Today, so one day shy of 37 weeks)

Ok, so let me fill you in on how I've been doing with this little guy in my tummy. All my appointments were going really well until I hit about 34 weeks. At that appointment, my blood pressure was starting to get a little high and I was told to take it easy and slow down. Well, that was also the same week that my swelling started and the headaches started (now I know those are from the high blood pressure). My pressure was 141/86 that week. They wanted me to come back for my next appointment in one week (at 35 weeks) instead of waiting until I got to 36 weeks (2 weeks away).

Ok, so at my 35 week appointment, my pressure had gone down some (and the headaches were better), so they told me I was doing better, but to still take it easy. (Meanwhile, I had started my new job about a month ago, was on a new project and was trying to get as much done before I had this guy as possible!). Anyway, I set off with another appointment scheduled for the following week - week 36.

Well, at that next appointment (last week), my pressure was higher than ever (145/98) and they threatened to take me out of work. After negotiating with them, they are giving me one more week to see how it goes, mostly because it is a holiday weekend and I'll be able to rest a bit (that's what they think!). Anyway, the headaches were back with a vengeance - so is the swelling. They also want me to do some additional testing to test me for pregnancy induced hypertension, uric acid and all the general preclampsia symptoms - so I am currently doing a 24-hour urine sampling today to bring in tomorrow (so much fun) and I will get bloodwork done when I get there in the morning. I have my next appointment on Thursday (so they have time to get these results) and I have a feeling that I will not be going to work again after that. I think I'm probably going to get pulled. Oh, well, I'll have tomorrow and Wednesday to tidy up what I can and turn it over - then we'll see what happens from there.

Now this weekend was a whole other story - but relaxing it has not been yet - so I am trying to take it easy today and get some r and r before Thursday. We'll see how that goes. I'll fill you all in on this weekend in a future post.

Needless to say, I am trying to get as much ready for little man as possible this weekend - just in case he decides to show up early, or the docs think it is a good idea to convince him to come a bit early - so resting hasn't been easy.

We have cleaned off a lot of our registry at Babies-r-Us, put together the swing and bassinet and we are planning on putting the car seats in today and pack my hospital bag to keep in the car. I figure that as much as Murphy's law loves us, if I'm not prepared, then I'll have him this week, if I am, then I can get at least one more week beforehand.

Other than all of that, I wanted to show you all some pictures of little man's room. It is just about decorated (even though we won't be here that long after he is born). He has a cute little jungle sports theme. I painted the cute little animal pictures on the wall in this next picture on either side of the blanket that is hanging on the wall.

Ok, so that's enough drama for one posting. I'll fill you in more in my next couple posts.

Long Time No Blog

So sorry that my blogging has been even worse lately (and that is pretty bad!). Things around here have been busy, crazy and very busy! lol! First, we got a new camera (since our other one went swimming) and it took me a bit to load the software to be able to upload the pictures, also, our internet is SO SLOW at home that blogging can be pretty stressful trying to upload the pictures and videos - but enough excuses, onto the good stuff.

Here are some funny pics and a video from when we first got our new camera of little Livi:

Yep, she got into her hair clips and decided to wear ALL of them! ha ha!

We have a new jumpy place that just opened up in our town and we've already been there twice. It is still pretty undiscovered, so we are taking advantage until all the other kids hear about it. Here is Olivia doing the big green slide - over and over and over again!

Here she is dancing like a maniac when I was watching "So you think you can dance." Apparently, she really liked this song and decided to cut loose! It was pretty funny!

Ok, that's all for this first entry. I'm going to run down and get some lunch then try to post some more. I have a ton to get onine for you guys (about a month and a half, I think) and a lot to fill you in on. I'll be back!